Art Blogging Contest

Thursday, May 08, 2008

LAST BLOG EVER! Hip Hip Hooray!

Okay, so I'm pretty excited that for my last piece to annalyze, I got Robert Schumann's "Widmung" or "Dedication" from the song cycle Myrten! I really like this song, partly because I heard it about twenty times during German diction! It's a really beautiful song, with wonderful lyrics that truly describe Schumann's devotion to his wife, at least I hope it's to her and not a girlfriend! That would kind of ruin the romance of this song!The words speak of devotion and call his, hopefully, wife his soul, heart, bliss, and pain. He calls her his world. The music has lovely romantic runs in the intro to prepare the listener for the romantic nature of the work. At the key change, the second verse begins. I wouldn't say that the tone of the text truly changes significantly, but the accompaniment certainly changes significantly and while I understand that it adds interest and diversity to the song, but I'm not sure it's a good change, only because the choppy nature of the triples make it more difficult to bring across the romantic feel of the song and keep the legato in the voice. A good singer can provide a wonderful counterpart to the accomaniment, which makes a nice texture, but a not-so-good singer might make the line choppy as well, something to watch for.The Gb's in measures eight through nine I think are used to emphasize the word "Himmel," or heaven, and the heavenly and unusual nature of his wife. Also, the piece is in ABA form.Okay, I think I'm done. So, I'm signing out! Ciao!